Date of Award
2011
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Abstract
The work of physician-turned-writer Walker Percy marks an important development in the history of Southern literature. The author's first novel, The Moviegoer, moves beyond previous consideration of what it meant to be a native of the region by capturing the mindset of modernity rooted in the philosophical movement of existentialism. Embracing the work of S²ren Kierkegaard allows Percy to articulate how his protagonist, Binx Bolling, moves towards a sense of purpose in life. Previously adrift due to the contending forces present in the modern mind, the author indicates how an existentially active individual can achieve a sense of direction through the work of not only Kierkegaard, but also Gabriel Marcel. There are certain phenomena present in the text that allow one to temporarily achieve some sense of solace within an inscrutably secularized existence. However, Percy indicates that the modern individual must ultimately find significance through an intersubjective engagement with another.
Extent
v, 73 p.
Recommended Citation
Salgado, Bryan., "Diagnosing modernity" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019. 249.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_6/249
Identifier
FADT3340697
Comments
by Bryan Salgado.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011.|Includes bibliography.|Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011.|by Bryan Salgado.